SOMETIMES PARK'S PEAK ISN'T ABOUT THE MOUNTAIN!

Sometimes Park's Peak isn't about the mountain, though it usually is!  When I inherited Dad's Mini Cooper Sport it was a really fun car.  But my sister told me it would "wear off" and its quirks at some point would begin to outweigh its nostalgia.  (Dad bought it at Christmas when he turned 90 and loved driving it until about 6 weeks before he died at 92, a little over a year ago.)  I had driven it a year and had enjoyed the attention it would bring in parking lots.  I especially liked telling folks the story of Dad buying it at 90 and driving it until he was 92.

But my sister was right.  I didn't like that it had no back seat, which meant every time Emily asked me to transport the girls, we had to switch cars.  And invariably, I'd be shopping for something BIG and would forget to switch cars.  (Dave actually liked this aspect, as it would delay or forgo some of my purchases!!)  It also had terrible blind spots. 

So I began looking for a new car.  I knew that I had not gotten the "convertible thing" out of my system, and it had to be red.  I began a computer search for convertibles with back seats and after looking at a few at Car Max, I began to narrow it down to a Volksvagen EOS or a BMW.  Dave obviously preferred the BMW and after I drove them both I agreed with him.  (When I went to the VW dealership, I drove both an EOS and a Beetle convertible.  I really wanted to like the Beetle the best, but it was noisy and had many of the features I didn't like about the Mini, though it "almost" had a back seat! LOL)

Dave wanted a couple of work days at Park's Peak, and I decided to tag along to work on some reading and writing projects.  And that way he could do some chain saw and ladder work with someone around.  We came up Monday, and Tuesday morning we woke up to COLD weather and a dusting of snow on the ground.  Having not found a red BMW in Charlotte, I searched dealerships in Asheville, and boom!  One popped up that had almost all of the bells and whistles I wanted and checked all my boxes!  I made an appointment for 10 am Tuesday morning.  We gingerly drove the MINI down the mountain (thankfully it was mostly snow and no ice).  Four hours later I am the proud owner of a 2015 BMW 428i!!   Thank you Dad!  It was a little sad to see the MINI go, but I know you would approved of the trade, and Dave's negotiations. Just wish I could take you for a spin!  Stay on my shoulder and keep reminding me that red cars get pulled over more often and so for many reasons, I need to drive safely, and not too fast.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

So far we have made several trips to Park's Peak this Winter.  But as usually happens, a few were "Plan A" and a few came to "Plan B, C, or Z"!!

Originally we had planned to visit the Peak during Thanksgiving for our 2nd Annual Punkin' Chunkin', but the flu struck Deb in Charlotte and then we were consumed with having our Charlotte house on tour through the first week of December.  The next week, we planned to take the granddaughters up for the National Gingerbread Contest at the Grove Park Inn.  The original plan was for Dave and I to go to Greenville on Friday and go up to the Peak to get the house warm.  Emily would meet us half way on Saturday morning, bringing us the girls.  As we were leaving Greenville, it started snowing and we had over a foot of snow on Park's Peak when we got there!.  By Saturday morning,  the roads were not safe for the girls.  In fact David and I hurriedly winterized the house Saturday morning and got down the mountain during the short time it got above freezing.  Dave's testosterone was running high as he maneuvered the jeep up and down the mountain.  He kept saying, "This is good!  The jeep is handling great!  Just like I hoped it would."  And Deb kept thinking (as she tried the phantom brake on the right side of the car and held on tight), "Thank goodness we aren't in the Mini Cooper!  The drifts would consume my little car!"

Our friends kept texting us and asking if were were hunkered by the fire with some wine!!  Of course we were!

Ingenuity is the Mother of Invention, and David decided to use the leaf blower as a snow blower on the deck.  And we brought out the tape measure for the snow.  While it was COLD, it was beautiful. 

This was Friday night, 3 more inches fell over night

First Winterizing oops...
After we got back to Charlotte, David thought back through our winterizing steps.  We had not used the bathroom upstairs, so we did not drain the water there.  There was already antifreeze in the traps.  BUT as he thought about it, when we turned the water on, it had filled up the tank in the toilet, which is in the wall between the bathroom and the bedroom.  When we look at the weather in Bat Cave, we usually subtract about 10 degrees (which is fabulous in the summer).  It had gotten down to 40 in the house before the snow, and now it was even colder outside - perhaps single digits!  So on Monday, David took the jeep back up the mountain to drain the toilet.  Actually, I think he just wanted to drive the jeep in the snow some more!! LOL  Go Bessie!

Granddaughters and Gingerbread
The next weekend we were able to go back to almost Plan A and we brought the girls up for the Gingerbread competition at the Grove Park Inn.  I told them they were going to a "fancy hotel"  and would need to wear "fancy clothes" and use their "fancy manners".  They were awed by the hotel, especially the fire places and views, but the cozy mountain atmosphere was not quite their definition of "fancy".  Children are so honest! One afternoon before we left, we tried to put  our own gingerbread houses together .  David gave the girls a few lessons in construction.

We also took a few of Ella's birthday presents with us so that she could have a celebration separate from all of the Christmas celebrations in Charlotte.  The waiter at the Grove Park served her a cookie and had the chef write "Happy Birthday" in chocolate on the plate!

Crunching with no front teeth can be a challenge, but Ella was up to it!!

The gingerbread houses were impressive and scattered all over the hotel.  The girls had a grand time exploring the public areas of the hotel and ooohing and ahhhing over each gingerbread house.  EVERYTHING had to be edible.

We took this one of Barbie dolls for Aunt Sharon!  Even the dolls bodies were edible!  how did they do it?

And a giraffe for Mamie

Back at Park's Peak the girls delighted in their new robes and we finally got our Punkin' Chunkin' in.  By this time, they were more than ready to be chunked, but I'm afraid Bartholomew the bear has already hibernated!  Unfortunately we had no hot tub time and the girls were mildly disappointed about that.  Actually, they just wanted to wear their robes to and from the hot tub.  We just didn't have time to get the water up to temperature. It can take up to 24 hours depending on how cold it got, and how hot you want it and we were leaving Sunday morning for the football game!  The girls were troopers Sunday morning getting up and packing on time!

"Foxy" looks on... I bought the girls "stuffies" at Grove Park Inn for using their "fancy manners".

Now we were inspired to decorate our own gingerbread houses.  It was so much fun to watch the girls and see their artistic styles.  Ella tackled the 2 small houses and Abbie worked on the large one.  With Ella icing is synonymous with fingerpaint, so that she can lick it off her fingers.  And her style is  "more is better."  Abbie on the other hand, was meticulous and worked hard to get Santa and the reindeer on the roof.  

Of course it wouldn't be gingerbread construction if there
wasn't some emergency REconstruction!  After the sides caved in,
 Abbie had to do the sides after she got home!!

One more Winterizing Oops... or Dave Saves the Wine!

After the Great Gingerbread Caper, we were ready to go back to Charlotte for the ball game, Christmas, 3 family birthdays, Jesus' birthday and New Years.  Our friends the Browns invited us down to Sunset Beach for New Years.  It turned out the be the coldest week of the year and even snowed at the beach!  But good wine, good food, and good cards kept us inside and happy!  However David began thinking about Park's Peak in single digits.  We had put the beer in a plastic box in the refrigerator in case the bottles popped their caps, but had not given a thought to the 2 cases of wine we had stored since our trips to Burnt Shirt and Over Mountain Wineries.  Dave, the chemist, figured that the wine would freeze at 15 degrees sustained over several hours.  We knew that it was going to be less than 10 degrees and not over 15 for several days.  He began worrying about his wine.  Really worrying!  We figured there was 3 scenarios:   we had wine all over the rug and stone fireplace, the wine had frozen, but was still frozen, so could be moved though it was ruined, or it hadn't gotten that cold in the house.  Monday morning, he got up early  and pointed Bessie once again toward Park's Peak.  Here are his texts to me once he arrived:  

He cranked up Bert, the truck and made sure he had plenty of antifreeze and headed home!

Stay tuned for Winter 2.0... Dave is having "Park's Peak Withdrawal" and is plotting a trip up next week, and we have been discussing and redrawing and redrawing kitchen plans all afternoon!!